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FROM AN ITALIAN GARDEN

Name: FROM AN ITALIAN GARDEN
Author: Judith Barrett
ISBN: 0-02-507405-9

by Judith Barrett ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1992

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Barrett (coauthor, Risotto, 1987) promises methods here for making vegetables ``as delicious as they are in Italy''—but never acknowledges in her wordy advisory that the packaged fresh spinach and other American supermarket fare she calls for is neither ``from an Italian garden'' nor very garden-fresh; nor can you make good Italian bread in a standard American oven. Her offhand background comments can be just as questionable: Food historians would like to hear, for instance, about how Horace enjoyed eating pasta. Still, her sampling of Italian vegetable dishes is good and varied. Here, along with solo vegetables used mostly in antipasti, are vegetable bruschetta and pizza toppings, pasta sauces, enhancements for polenta, more risotto, frittata, and salad, and, in a switch, fruit (not vegetable) desserts. So the main question becomes just how much of this you can absorb on top of so many other Italian vegetable cookbooks, from Paolo Scaravelli and Jon Cohen's Cooking from an Italian Garden (1984) to last year's The Antipasto Table, by Michele Scicolone, and Verdura, by Viana La Place and Evan Kleiman.

Pub Date: April 1, 1992

ISBN: 0-02-507405-9

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.